I am making a VR-application for my master thesis where people enter a virtual "rage room". I want to check if enhancing VR with the use of haptic feedback, gloves in this case, helps to reduce stress. I am looking for one or more questionnaires to measure stress before and after the test to evaluate the use of the application. What are the best questionnaires to use? The test subjects will be between 16 and 60 years old.
If you want to measure stress scores online The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale - Mind Tools and is good. However it would not change much from before to after your experiment so Beck Anxiety Scale (BAI) depending on your own profession
is more sensitive.
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) might be a good choice if you want to measure subjectively experienced stress, as opposed to physiological markers: https://www.das.nh.gov/wellness/Docs%5CPercieved%20Stress%20Scale.pdf
The scale is, as Luis mentioned above, widely used in robust empirical studies published in reputable journals. A 2012 review (linked below) found the 10-item to be superior to the 14-item variant in terms of psychometric properties; the 4-item scale did not perform as well. The scale has also been translated and verified in a number of different languages.
It is worth considering that assessments of the psychometric properties of PSS have usually been conducted on college students/workers, though given your proposed sample size (depending on sampling frame), this may or may not be an issue for you.
The sensitivity to change of your chosen scale would also be a valuable thing to keep in mind, considering you intend to use it for pre-vs-post purposes, meaning the two assessments might be conducted within a short space of time. Hope this helps!
Article Review of the Psychometric Evidence of the Perceived Stress Scale
Thank you to all who provided answers. It seems that the PSS questionnaire could be a useful tool to administer before the test. However, I have some concerns about its ability to measure a difference in stress levels after the test. The questionnaire focuses on the subject's stress levels over the last month. How can it effectively capture changes in stress levels that may occur after the test?